Historical Approaches in Cultural Analysis

The historical study of everyday culture is conducted by European Ethnologists as well as by members of other fields and disciplines like Historical Anthropology, Micro-History, Cultural History or Social Anthroplogy. So one might ask what are the special contributions of our discipline to this field; and how Ethnologists can ameliorate research in this field.

The working group on Historical Approaches in Cultural Analysis aims to strengthen the particular historical focus of Ethnology in the research of everyday culture. By engaging in a dialogue with Historians, Anthropologists and scholars of other neighbouring disciplines, the working group will sharpen the discipline’s own focus and comparative potentials on the everyday past. The group will form an international forum for the discussion and promotion of new historical studies. It will re-evaluate perspectives, approaches, methods, theories and forms of representing knowledge within the historical research, and it will seek to broaden possibilities in studying the past.

The working group’s strategic aims include the promotion of historical studies; the encouragement of young researchers to contribute to the field of historical research; and the strengthening of exchange between the field of contemporary and historical research within Ethnology in a more systematic manner.